H2Ope for Haiti: A fundraiser-raffle with great prizes for a great purpose

One month ago Haiti was shaken by a devastating earthquake. As Italian, and Sicilian mostly, I have experienced these events on my skin far too many times. Though the destruction was never as big as what happened in Port-au-Prince.
We have been filled in by the TV on all the facts and the desperation; we might even have friends that now are working in-loco to help the population. Anesthetized as we are to these type of news, by the continues hammering reports of accidents, deaths, disasters that poor on us each and every time we switch on TV; we realize that this is not a situation to forget about and push back in our memories.
As foodies community we know the value of sharing, of giving and often sacrifice. Our efforts, the products of our sleepless nights are made to be shared with our beloved, in the big marketplace that is the virtual world and around the tables that are our blogs.
We are not new to manifestations of social outreach; The Blogger Aid Cookbook

collecting the recipes from blogger all over the world, year by year helps supporting the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP).
From Sunday, February 21 till Sunday, February 28th BloggerAid – Changing the Face of Famine is organizing H2Ope for Haiti; a raffle to raise funds for Concern Worldwide’s Relief Effort in Haiti  (providing clean drinking water and purification tablets to the victims of the recent earthquake).
Many thanks go to Jeanne of Cook Sister! for her dedication and efforts in making this possible.
Many gorgeous prizes have been provided by blogger from all around the globe (and if not expressly specified they will be shipped worldwide): original art-works in form of photography and paintings, signed books, baking goodies packages, vouchers and much more; the variety is huge and able to tickle the interest of each and every of you.
Here you will find the complete list of the prizes with their relative raffle code (very important!). Visiting the Just Giving donation page you will find all the information on how to purchase your raffle ticket for the prize of your choice.
So please, buy as many raffle tickets you wish (each of them is priced at £6.50 – about €7.4 or $10).

As contribution to this event I have decided to donate a gorgeous book: Shirley Corriher’s ”CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed” with Prize Code HFH21.

"Can you tell whether a recipe will work before you cook it? You can if you know what's cooking."
As a biochemist, Shirley Corriher has all the right credentials to explain us what’s going on. Her witty and playful style of writing will make you read this book like a novel; who won’t share a laugh when she shares with us what happened to her first roasted duck; which, poor thing, burst open while cooking because overstuffed?
How to avoid your melted chocolate to become a grainy mass? Go directly to Chapter 7 – “Sweet thoughts and chocolate dreams” where Shirley explains us the wonders of crystals in cooking delivering us her recipe for the Sinfully Easy Fudge among other delicacies.
Always wondered about that sticky gooey dough that becomes delicious bread? Have you ever admired those high, ethereal soufflés but felt always intimidated by them? Fear no more, in this book you may find all the basic knowledge that will make your legs stronger and you fearless and proud of yourself.
With over 230 fail proof and delicious recipes (from apple pie to beurre blanc) and 42 at-a-glance troubleshooting charts; Shirley make you, the cook, the one in control!
This book has it all; it reads like a novel, it will become a reference resource for your dinner parties and one of the books that will never collect dust on your shelves.

The prize code for this book: HFH21;

Let me remind then you all the important links and pages to visit:

• The H2Ope homepage;
• The complete list of the prizes with their relative raffle code;
• The Just Giving donation page to purchase your raffle tickets.

Good luck!

A gift from the mountains

Few days ago I posted about my last catered dinner; it was quite an event with 30 people to serve and a 10 courses menu. Out of them I have already posted my recipe for Muhammara, a delicious middle-eastern dip based on roasted red peppers and walnuts; few minutes ago Rachel from A Scot in London asked me about the chestnut gnocchi. They were in effect one of the most popular course of the whole meal, many of the guest were just telling me "If you are going to eat any of the leftovers, just make yourself a dish of gnocchi!". To tell you the truth, we were tasting them while they were sautéed with the orange butter and I quite loved them too!
So here I give you the simple recipe to prepare these gnocchi at home.

Chestnut Gnocchi

Ingredients (makes 1kg of gnocchi):

• 700g floury potatoes;
• 200g all purpose flour;
• 100g chestnut flour;
• 1 large egg;
• Salt.

Procedure:
Cut the potatoes in chunks of roughly the same size and boil them into salted water. When cooked, drain the potatoes and let them cool down a bit. You will need to process them while they are still warm; so when cold enough to handle, peel them and pass them through a potato ricer or a food mill into a bowl. Add a pinch of salt, the two flours and the egg mixing the whole together using a spoon or your hands. Let the dough rest for a couple of hours so the flour gets properly hydrated.
When ready to shape your gnocchi, bring a big pot of salted water to a boil, cut little chunks of dough and flouring your hands and the working surface, shape them into sausages (their thickness will determine the size of your gnocchi).
The dough usually comes pretty soft so the gnocchi won’t keep their shape if cut and left on a tray so you will need to blanch them right after being cut. To do so, hold one of the sausages in your hand over the pot with the boiling water and cut little pieces of it using a scissor letting them drop into the water (to keep the scissor from sticking to the dough, dip its tip into the hot water before cutting each gnocco).
Gnocchi need only few minutes to cook; when they start floating on top of the water they are practically ready. Using a slotted spoon, drain them into a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking and then let them drain properly before transferring into a tray or another bowl while you keep on cooking the rest.
When all the dough is over and the gnocchi are nice and at room temperature you can either store them in your fridge or sauté them in you sauce; they will warm up and become nice and fluffy.
To try the dish I made for my dinner, you will need to make some orange butter mixing soft butter with fresh orange zest in the proportion of 2 big oranges per 250gr of butter, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Let the butter melt on a pan, sauté your gnocchi into it and serve them with shaves of hard pecorino cheese on top. Really delish!

Do you have any other recipe that you have read mentioned in my post and would like posted? Let me know.

It’s show time and this time it is BIG!

Almost 2 months ago, 800km/500miles from home, 30+ guests to satisfy, 10 courses to prepare, 30+ hours of cooking for a 6h dining experience; these are the ingredients to keep in mind reading what will follow.
Almost two months ago a very close friend of mine, Daniela, asked me to cater for her boyfriend’s, Giacomo, birthday dinner to be held near Bologna, in Italy. 

I was expressly requested to provide more of a feast (not that I ever put on the table mozzarella and ham with stale breads at my dinners) than a simple "spaghettata" Italian style. The challenge grew bigger when the number of guests started inflating like proper sourdough bread. Bubbly bubbly they raised to 30+ people. I had never cooked for more than 6 people so this was starting to take the shape of a very interesting adventure. To fix the menu proved to be quite challenging. Many cups of coffee, gazes in the air, and sketches of the possible platings brought to life a 10 courses menu divided in 4 appetizers and 6 courses from starch to meat to fish, passing by a fragrant broth and ending with a fresh panna cotta grazed by some local fresh white truffle. 

A rapid email chain with all my professional Chefs and foodies friends supported me on the choices I made.

It’s a Chickpea Affair

This was Carnival l week in old Europe and here in Nord Rhine Westphalia were I live, this is a deeply felt festivity. It all goes by the number 11, they start planning it the 11th of November and the party this year started the 11th of February at 11am (Carnival takes place always the week-end before the start of Lent period). In other words, do you like beer not only in October? Come by this region around February to get loaded up and see Germans through new eyes.
I am not a big beer fun and decided to stay home enjoying the falling snow and doing some cooking. Lucky enough, the monthly Daring Cooks challenge http://thedaringkitchen.com/ involved Lebanese Mezze; namely Pita bread and Hummus and few other optional dishes (thanks to Michele of Veggie Num Nums for the choice).